and there's no signs of any progress from president obama and house speaker john boehner, which is raising the tension on capitol hill. abc's jonathan karl is there. and both sides are giving up hope of solving this by christmas. >> reporter: that's right. in fact, speaker boehner and republican leaders have warned rank and file republicans that they should be prepared to be here in washington, through christmas, and until the new year. the two sides don't even agree on what's holding everything up. the white house says that everything could be resolved quickly if republicans just agreed to raise tax rates on the wealthy. republicans say what's really the problem here is the white house won't get serious about spending cuts. >> everyone waiting on those two men. meanwhile, one of the side casualties may be that funding for the victims of hurricane sandy. >> reporter: that's right. i do not think that hurricane sandy funding, the $60 billion request from the white house, will get done while there's an impasse here. republicans are already blocking at the cost. they point out, george, that $